Issue Position: Ensuring Retirement Security for Present and Future

Issue Position

I am committed to honoring the promises made to seniors and will protect Medicare and Social Security for both today's and tomorrow's seniors. But the inaction and the massive cuts to the programs supported by President Obama and liberals in Congress is not an option. Without reforms to preserve and strengthen Medicare and Social Security, these programs will not exist for future generations.

Medicare's Trustees estimate the program will be bankrupt in just 13 years. President Obama cut Medicare by $575 billion in order to claim Obamacare would reduce future deficits, hastening the program's demise unless action is taken. In reality, Obamacare explodes future deficits, and as a result, our seniors will suffer. These Medicare cuts will threaten the ability of seniors to keep their doctors because many doctors will refuse to see Medicare patients or leave their practices entirely. Even worse, to control prices, President Obama has empowered unelected bureaucrats to make life and death healthcare decisions for Medicare recipients.

I believe that the United States Congress must restore Social Security to the independent trust fund account envisioned by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in order to stop Washington politicians from raiding it to fund their reckless spending sprees. I support enact gradual reforms to Medicare that allow future recipients to choose from a variety of plans, injecting competition into Medicare. That will help reduce costs and ensure the program can be sustained in the long run. I will not support changes to the plans of current Medicare recipients.

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